Key Compliance Deadlines

The Act applies in stages. Missing a stage that already passed doesn't mean it's too late — it means you're catching up, and you should prioritise.

The timeline

• August 1, 2024 — the Act entered into force. The clock started.
• February 2, 2025 — prohibitions on banned AI practices (Art. 5) apply, and the AI literacy requirement (Art. 4) takes effect: staff dealing with AI must have sufficient AI literacy. Both are already in force.
• August 2, 2025 — governance rules and obligations for general-purpose AI (GPAI) model providers apply.
• August 2, 2026 — transparency obligations (Art. 50) apply, alongside penalty enforcement for the rules already in effect.
• December 2, 2027 — the big one for high-risk. High-risk obligations for Annex III systems (HR, credit, education, biometrics, critical infrastructure) apply — deferred from August 2026 by the 2026 Digital Omnibus.
• August 2, 2028 — high-risk AI embedded in products regulated under Annex I (medical devices, machinery, vehicles).

What this means in practice

If you deploy or provide AI touching hiring, credit, education, or other Annex III areas, your documentation, oversight, and registration duties bite on December 2, 2027 (deferred from August 2026 by the 2026 Digital Omnibus). Working backwards from that date: inventory and classification should be done now, documentation drafted well ahead, and monitoring live at enforcement — the extra runway is for doing it properly, not for waiting.

The dashboard shows a live countdown and a deadline-aware compliance journey.